146 CHAPTER II. Ann.1547. A royal visitation on foot. A ROYAL VISITATION. By these and other pious instigations of the archbishop, who was of high esteem with the king, he began early to think of the church, and to take care about rectifying the disorders of its members. For about April there was a royal visitation resolved upon all England over, for the better reformation of religion. And accordingly, in the beginning of May, letters were issued out from the king to the archbishops, that they and all their fellow-bishops should forbear their visitations, as was usually done in all royal and archiepiscopal visitations. And it was enjoined, that no ministers should preach in any churches but their own. Titus B. 2. In a volume in the Cotton library, there be extant the [fol. 89.] king's letters to Robert archbishop of York, relating to this visitation; signed by our archbishop, the duke of Somerset the protector", and his brother sir Thomas Seymour', the lord Russel", favourers of the reformation; the lord St. John, Petre the secretary, who went along with it; Gage, comptroller of the household, and Bakera, chancellor of the court of augmentations, back-friends to it. Hist. Ref. I do not set down the letter itself, because the bishop of Collect. Sarum hath already published it in his history". VI., and of the kingdom; he held the offices of comptroller of the household, and lord admiral, and was afterwards lord privy seal. He was sent against the Devonshire rebels, whom he defeated; he afterwards took part against the lord protector, and, upon his removal, was one of the governors of the king's person. He was found first on the side of the lady Jane Grey, and then on that of queen Mary, and died at "his house beside the Savoy," March 20, 1554.-Id. vol. ii. pp. 6, 36, 238, 245, 282, 286, 367, 369, 471; Strype's Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. pt. i. pp. 21, 335. ed. Oxon. 1822.] * [i. e. sir William Paulet, lord St. John, earl of Wiltshire, and marquis of Winchester, an executor of Henry VIII., and governor to his son, who is found taking a conspicuous part in the important transactions of this and the two succeeding reigns.] y [See vol. i. p. 118, n. ".] z [Sir John Gage was a member of the privy council, and appointed to assist the executors of Henry VIII.; he took part against the protector, was lord chamberlain to queen Mary, and lieutenant of the Tower, when the princess Elizabeth was imprisoned, upon whose accession he quitted the country. See Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol. ii. pp. 7, 36, 280, 503, 728, 793.] a [Sir John Baker, a member of the privy council, and appointed to assist the executors of Henry VIIIth's will; he joined the party against the protector, and afterwards was opposed to the settlement of the crown upon the lady Jane Grey, but yielded through fear. Id. vol. ii. pp. 7, 36, 282, 456, 457.] b The following is the letter referred to above from the Cotton MSS. Titus B. ii. fol. 89, British Museum, Original, which is written on vellum. "The king's letter to the archbishop of York, (Robert Holgate), concerning the visitation then intended. -Edwardus Sextus, Dei gratia, Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ, rex, fidei defensor, ac in terra ecclesiæ Anglicanæ et Hiberniæ supremum caput, reverendissimo in Christo patri, ac prædilecto consiliario nostro Roberto permissione divina Eboracen. archiepisc. Angliæ primati et metropolitano salutem. Quum nos, suprema authoritate nostra regia, omnia et singula loca ecclesiastica, clerumq; et populum infra et per totum nostrum Angliæ regnum constituta, propediem visitare statuerimus, vol. ii. p. 103. Very worthy, sober, and learned men were appointed for visitors, both of the laity and clergy: and there was a book of injunctions prepared, whereby the king's visitors were to govern their visitation. The original of which book of injunctions is extant in Benet College library: there I have seen them, being signed by Thomas archbishop of Canterbury, the duke of Somerset, sir Thomas vobis tenore præsentium stricte inhibemus atq; mandamus et per vos suffraganeis vestris confratribus episcopis, ac per illos suis archidiaconis ac aliis quibuscunq; jurisdictionem ecclesiasticam exercentibus, tam exemptis quam non exemptis, infra vestram provinciam Eboracens. ubilibet constitutis sic inhibere volumus atq; præcipimus, quatenus nec vos nec quisquam eorum ecclesias, aut alia loca prædicta clerumve aut populum visitare, aut ea quæ sunt jurisdictionis exercere seu quicquam aliud in præjudicium dictæ nostræ visitationis generalis quovismodo attemptare præsumatis sive præsumat sub pœna contemptus, donec et quousq; licentiam et facultatem vobis et eis in ea parte largiend. et impertiend. fore duxerimus. Et quia non solum internam animorum subditorum nostrorum pacem; verum etiam externam eorum concordiam multiplicibus opinionum procellis ex contentione, dissentione et contraversiis concionatorum exortis, multum corruptam, violatam ac misere divulsam esse cernimus; idcirco nobis admodum necessarium visum est ad sedandas et componendas hujusmodi opini onum varietates, quatenus inhibeatis, seu inhiberi faciatis omnibus et singulis episcopis, nec alibi quam in ecclesiis suis cathedralibus, et aliis personis ecclesiasticis quibuscunque, ne in alio loco quam in suis ecclesiis, collegiatis, sive parochialibus, in quibus intitulati sunt, prædicent, aut subditis nostris quovis modo concionandi munus exerceant, nisi ex gratia nostra speciali ad id postea licentiati fuerint, sub nostræ indignationis pæna. In cujus rei testimonium, sigillum nostrum, quo ad causas ecclesiasticas utimur, præsentibus apponi mandavimus. Dat. quarto die mensis Maii, anno Dom. 1547. et regni nostri anno primo. E. SOMERSET. T. SEYMOUR. JOHN GAGE." See Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol. ii. pt. ii. B. i. No. 7. pp. 149, 50. ed. Oxon. 1829. Wilkins' Concilia, vol. iv. p. 10.] [MSS. C. C. C. C. No. cxxi. pp. 489-514.] Seymour, and divers others of the privy-council; but no bishop, save Cranmer only; he being, I suppose, the only bishop then a privy-councillor, and now often appearing in the council for the better forwarding of religion. These injunctions are printed in bishop Sparrow's collection, and briefly epitomized in the history of the Reforma- Vol. ii. tione. p. 28. ors. The persons nominated for this present employment The visitwere these, as I find them set down in a manuscript formerly belonging to archbishop Parker, but now in the Vol. intit. Synodalia. Benet College libraryf: where you may observe the visitors were divided into six sets, and to each set were apportioned particular episcopal sees, and a preacher and a register, in this exact method following: The me thod of this Where we may observe, that in every company of visitors was joined one preacher, or more; whose business, in the respective circuits, was to preach to the people, to dehort them from the superstitious use of beads and suchlike things, and to learn them to worship God truly in heart and mind, and to obey the prince. The method, which these commissioners used in their visitation. visitation, as we collect from what was done at St. Paul's, London, was this. They summoned the bishop, and the |